Skin and Bones
by TypingDancer
Summary: Married Sebastian and Santana are content with their decision to not have children, but the same isn't true for their loved ones.


**A/N: Hello, friends! Life has been a bit crazy for me lately, so finding time to not only write but also upload stories has proven difficult. But I'm back with another little Sebtana one-shot. I kind of got bored of their wedding (which takes place in 2021, not 2023, oops!) and wanted to skip to a point in time where they would act more like themselves. This one is sad, but I'll be back with more pleasant content soon! Also, if you were wondering, in my head, Sebastian's sisters Viola and Calliope are played by Chyler Leigh and Anna Kendrick respectively, his mother Joanna by Julianne Moore, and his father Elliott by Hugh Grant. **

**Enjoy!**

Skin and Bones

_July 2021_

When Santana and Sebastian got engaged, they lied in bed and had a conversation about children; whether or not they wanted any, and if so, when. After a night of discussing logistics and making inappropriate jokes, the two of them decided that they wouldn't try to have kids, but if Santana ever became pregnant, then they would take it as a sign from the universe that they were ready to be parents. And while Santana's parents supported this choice ("It's your body and your family," her mother had said), Sebastian's family was less than impressed. During brunch with his parents in New York, his mother practically fell out of her chair while his father just about choked on the coffee he had spiked for himself moments ago.

"Sebastian, darling," Joanna started, "is that really what you want? Just... the two of you?"

"Mom," Sebastian hissed, eyes widening at his mother's ignorance.

Joanna sighed, exasperated, and reached over to cradle Santana's hand with her own polished ones. "Santana, Elliott and I have two daughters and one son. One boy. One child to carry on the family name, and I don't know how important that sort of thing is with your people, but-"

"Mom," Sebastian warned.

"- it's important to us. Every dignified upper-class family in this country has children-"

"Mom."

"- and it would just be so sad to see my baby boy fall behind in this society because-"

"MOM!" Sebastian shouted, garnering the attention of practically everyone in the restaurant. Joanna dropped Santana's hand and quickly retracted hers into her lap as if it would make her invisible. Santana winced at the sound of Sebastian's rising temper right in her ear, accidentally making an awkward second of eye contact with Sebastian's father, Elliott. Shuddering, she quickly turned her attention back to Joanna, who had begun nibbling on a strawberry in her parfait as if the last five minutes hadn't happened. She felt Sebastian's arm wrap around her shoulders, followed by his nose burrowing through her hair to plant a kiss on her jaw. "We can leave," he whispered, softly pecking her ear lobe.

"No," she whispered, shrugging him off and clearing her throat. "Look, Joanna. I understand your concern and interest in grandchildren. I'm an only child, and I have an abuela with an ass that won't quit." Sebastian began to chuckle at his wife, but after the look his parents were giving him, he quickly stifled the laughter and cleared his throat. "Anyways," Santana continued, "I get that you have expectations of us. But Sebastian and I just don't do what other people tell us to do-"

"I should know, I raised him," Joanna muttered as she took a sip of coffee.

"Hey, lady!" Santana snapped, leaning over the table. "It's my uterus, and I have veto on any shenanigans that goes down in there!" The jaws of Joanna, Elliott, and Sebastian Smythe dropped as Santana stood up, continuing her rant. "Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to go back to France, _Europe_ with my husband and we are going to go have wild, ravenous sex in every possible location around our condo with absolutely no intention of procreating whatsoever. Come on, Sebastian, let's go." And with that, Santana stormed to the door of the restaurant, only to turn around and bark, "Seb!" Sebastian stood as quickly, but with as much poise as he could, and strutted over to his wife.

"Mother. Father," he curtly called to his parents before taking Santana's hand and storming out with her, leaving Joanna and Elliott Smythe completely and utterly dumbfounded.

Once they returned home late in the evening, Santana fished out her house keys from her pocket and unlocked the door with a soft click. She stood in the front foyer, taking in the scent of their home. She loved the way their house smelled, a blend of mulling spices, brown sugar, and vanilla. Always warm and always inviting, just the way she liked it. Santana's eyes closed as she took a long whiff, only to shoot open again when she felt a pair of strong arms wrap around her waist and a set of lips attach themselves to her neck like leeches. Santana smirked and stifled a laugh as she turned around.

"What was that for?" she asked, rubbing her hands along Sebastian's toned arms and examining the coy smirk she had come to know so intimately.

"You didn't _lie _to my parents at brunch, did you?" he asked, his hands finding rest on the small of her back.

Santana threw her head back in laughter, dropping her purse. "Of course not," she purred before attaching her lips to his as she swiftly slammed the door to their home shut.

_October 2021_

Santana awoke to find Sebastian fast asleep beside her in their bed, his arm draped across her midsection. She smiled sleepily at how peaceful he looked, the only person she ever planned on referring to as 'baby'. This bliss was quickly interrupted as the phone on her bedside table began to ring. Santana carefully snatched the phone from the dock and clicked it on, trying not to wake Sebastian.

"Hello?" she croaked.

"Santana, you-"

Click. The last person Santana wanted to be arguing with right now was her nosey prick of a mother-in-law. _It's been three months_, Santana thought, _let it go!_ Sighing, Santana stuck the phone on the charger and turned back to Sebastian, who had awaken in the kerfuffle.

"Who was it, babe?" he murmured as he leaned over to kiss his wife.

"Mmm, telemarketer," Santana sighed as she wiggled into Sebastian's embrace. They laid in bed for a few moments just listening to the sound of each others' breathing, until Santana suddenly perked up and looked at Sebastian.

"What?" Sebastian asked, confused and trying not to laugh.

"Remember that thing we did last night," she asked, "the new thing?" He nodded. "Is that the thing you were telling me about that Sam said he was scared to try with Mercedes?"

"Yeah, why?" he replied, rolling onto his back and stretching out his legs. Santana followed his and began tracing circles on his chest with her finger.

"That's my new favourite," Santana purred, leaning her head on his shoulder and reaching to peck his neck.

"Well," Sebastian scoffed smugly, "I aim to please." He felt her mouth curl into a smirk on his chest, prompting him to follow in suit before turning over to reconnect their mouths briefly. "Well, we should get up," he sighed, breaking the kiss and heading to the closet, "I have to go in and finish confirming sponsors for the gala next month."

"And I have to call Corey and Nadia to reschedule the costume fitting for West Side Story," Santana groaned as she rolled out of bed and trudged to the bathroom, snatching her toothbrush from its cup.

"Shit, why?" Sebastian asked, pausing as he chose a suit to wear.

"They cancelled my flight. Nothing is going to LA for, like, weeks." Santana sighed as she squirted toothpaste on the bristles and began brushing.

"Remind me why the costume designer for a Broadway musical is located in California?" Sebastian laughed, pulling his pyjama pants off and trading them for briefs.

Santana spit toothpaste into the sink and stuck her head out of the doorway. "Because she's, like, won and Emmy or something, I don't know. Anyways," she continued, rinsing off her toothbrush and heading for the closet, "I'm just going to hang out here today, were you going to dinner with anyone today?"

"I was supposed to, but I don't really feel like it's a 'listening to whiny pricks from human resources bitch and moan' kind of day," Sebastian replied as he pulled his tie through one last loop. He turned around to see Santana dashing back to the bathroom with a hand over her mouth. Sebastian was about to rush to his wife's aid, when the phone rang. Seeing the caller ID, Sebastian huffed a sigh and picked up the phone.

"Mom, I was just heading out the door and Santana's busy, give us a call this evening, au revoir." Sebastian spat into the receiver before curtly turning off the phone and rushing to the bathroom to check on Santana. "Babe," he called from the doorway, cringing as she leaned over to hurl, "you okay?" Santana's head shot up so fast Sebastian was surprised she didn't get whip lash.

"Oh, no, sweetie, I'm fine," Santana cooed, batting her eyelashes before morphing into a death glare. "Of course, not, dumbass," she snapped as she wiped her mouth and stood up slowly. Taking a death breath and turning to her husband, who was covering his mouth to stop his laughter, Santana added, "I bet it's that thing Viola had when I visited her last week. She was horrible."

"Viola's pregnant, Santana," Sebastian corrected, still laughing but now also slightly worried, as he followed her back into their bedroom.

"Not Viola from work, you idiot, your sister," Santana laughed as she tied her hair into a bun. "Why did you go there, Seb, why?"

"Hey," Sebastian started as he joined his wife in making their bed. "Having a hostile personality doesn't mean you have a hostile uterus."

"Exhibit A, your mother," Santana muttered as she grabbed a throw pillow. "And also," she added as she tossed the pillow and hit Sebastian in the head.

"Hey!"

"Hostile personality?" she shrieked in mock-anger.

"From one bitch to another," Sebastian laughed as he tossed the pillow back at her and headed downstairs to grab breakfast. After the two of the finished a quick bowl of cereal together, Sebastian grabbed his laptop bag, car keys and cell phone by the door, turned to kiss Santana before she went back up to bed and head off to work.

"Anyways, I gotta go, Cedes, my monster-in-law is on the other line ready to chew my head off about the fact that Sebastian and I have no intentions of having kids. And she's early today, it's not even four o'clock," Santana complained as she popped a grape into her mouth while lying on the couch in her living room. After phoning her directors for West Side Story as well as the airline to schedule a flight after Christmas, Santana spent the afternoon chatting with Mercedes, who was riding right down the west coast to her next tour destination all day.

"Okay, girl," Mercedes teased, "play nice, San."

"Yeah, okay," Santana laughed as she clicked the phone to the other line. "Hello?"

"Santana?" a choked, sniffling voice asked.

Santana sat up abruptly. "Joanna? What's wrong?"

Santana could hear Joanna take a deep breath before blurting out, "Elliott had a stroke this morning."

"Oh my God," Santana stuttered, "is he okay?" But Joanna didn't answer. "Joanna?" Nothing. "Jo?" Still nothing but muffled and choked sobs. "Mom?" Santana tried.

"They said..." Joanna took a deep breath, " they said he's p-partially brain dead, and h-he's lost some m-m-motor skills." The two sat in silence while Santana tried to process what Joanna had just said. Partially brain dead? Santana took a deep breath, running her fingers through her hair.

"Okay. Um, Jo, you there?" Santana asked hesitantly. She heard a soft m-hm from her mother-in-law. "Um, well, I have to go, but I will get Sebastian to call you as soon as I can, okay?" Another m-hm. Click. Santana set the phone down beside her and sat for a moment, before bolting off to the washroom to vomit up grapes. _Ugh_, she thought after failing to find Tums, _definitely heading to the drug store_.

Sebastian was sitting in a meeting that was taking much longer than it needed to about some stupid gala that benefited some client's charity for orphaned puppies, or pandas, or something. Currently, his boss Claudia was rambling on about technicalities of the event and he was playing a rather dirty version of hangman with his best friend and co-worker Trent. He had just spelled out the saucy trick he and Santana had done last night, when Claudia looked up from her notes and stopped in her speech.

"Uh, Smythe, isn't that your wife?" she pointed through the glass wall to a young woman racing through the incredibly long hallway of offices to the conference room. Sebastian looked back over his shoulder to see Santana with her hands on her waist catching her breath before she pushed the door open and made a 'come here' motion with her finger. Sebastian grabbed his things and, after bidding his coworkers goodbye, followed his wife outside to her car.

"Hey, what's up?" Sebastian leaned up against the car and crossed his arms casually, but as Santana's face began to quiver, he stood up and wrapped his arms around her as she burst into tears. "Hey, shh," he soothed, "what's up?"

Santana took a deep breath before looking up at Sebastian and wiping a tear from her eye. "Your dad had a stroke. Your mom called me." And that was when Sebastian tuned right out. He could see Santana's lips moving and her eyes flooding with tears, but everything was in slow-motion.

"My... my dad?" he asked in disbelief. Santana began nodding uncontrollably and uttering "I'm sorry" between cries. Sebastian, dumbstruck and completely void of thought, tightened his grip on Santana and stood with her as tears dripped off his face onto her hair.

_December 2021_

Sebastian flew out to Ohio that night, leaving Santana, who had deemed herself too sick to fly ("You won't need to buy me a plane ticket because I'll be in the bathroom puking the whole time.) But what was supposed to be two weeks at home with his sisters helping Joanna learn how to take care of Elliott now that he was wheelchair-bound with a feeding tube and a catheter turned into pretty much moving back home shortly before Halloween until Christmas. Sebastian and Santana video called each other for at least two hours every evening, but Santana was still feeling sick a week after Sebastian had left, so he made sure that Trent's wife Liz was visiting regularly to make sure Santana was okay. After a few weeks, Santana stopped being sick, and it was assumed that she back to normal and would be flying down the following weekend. But, then, on the morning of Thanksgiving, Sebastian woke up to a text from Santana.

_You picked the right Viola._

Confused, Sebastian texted back immediately.

_What?_

_You'll see_, she responded.

It wasn't until Sebastian called Santana on his laptop and was greeted with a slightly blurry image of two pink lines on a white background.

"What's that?" Sebastian stuttered. The image dropped from the screen to reveal Santana sitting at their dining room table, just like every other day.

"So," she started, "remember the time when we told your parents that we weren't having kids and then we went home and-"

"-and had wild, ravenous sex in every possible location around our condo with absolutely no intention of procreating whatsoever. Uh, yeah. With great clarity." Sebastian stopped, noticing that something about Santana was off. "San?" he asked nervously. And then he saw. _She was smiling. _Like, with her teeth and everything. Like, a crazy, goofy stupid happy smile. Santana Lopez doesn't smile. She smiled all of four times in university. She smiled when they got engaged. She smiled when they got married. She smiled when fucking_ Nadia Harrison_, a Tony-winning director, sought her out at a party in New York in August and offered her the role of Anita in a revival of West Side Story on Broadway. "I picked the right Viola," he thought out loud.

Laughing, she replied, "Yeah, you did."

Sebastian sat, still perplexed, until his eyes widened suddenly. "You're pregnant." Santana, fighting back tears, nodded.

"Yup."

"There's shenanigans."

"M-hm."

"In your uterus."

"That's what I said."

"Holy shit."

**A/N: Ladies and gentlemen, the mistress of clever and mind-fucking endings is back. Please rate, follow, favourite, and review, my lovelies! I'll be back in a week, tops. Mwa! **

**Oh, PS, I DON'T own Glee, or any of the characters on Glee. The characters featured exclusively in the above text, however, are property of moi. **


End file.
